


Alone Together

by Blaze_X



Category: Marvel, Marvel (Comics)
Genre: Asgard (Marvel), Dark Elves, Light Elves, Svartálfaheimr | Svartalfheim, Álfheimr | Alfheim
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-11-27
Updated: 2018-01-11
Packaged: 2019-02-07 14:36:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 8,970
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12843264
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blaze_X/pseuds/Blaze_X
Summary: After her parents are killed by frost giants, a young dark elf named Larenna is taken in by a light elf and taken to Asgard. While there she quickly befriends Loki, and the two cause more trouble together than either of them could apart.





	1. Growing Bonds

Failure.

That was the word that followed Ander Brightwind his whole life. He was born with low magical potential, a childhood injury meant he could not properly wield a bow, and his over all attitude could at best be considered inappropriate for a light elf. His most recent offence though, was considered a threat to all of Alfheim. He took in a ten year old dark elf after her parents were killed by frost giants.

He was called before the Alfheim council and Queen Aelsa herself. “You realize the danger you’ve put us all in by bringing that creature here, right?” One of the council members asked.

“That ‘creature’ as you put it, is merely a child. She is no more dangerous than a light elf child of the same age.” Ander answered as calmly as he possibly could given the circumstances.

“Preposterous. Everyone knows dark elves are inherently evil. It is only a matter of time before that nature rears its head, and the child tries to kill us all.” Another council member countered.

“No one is inherently evil. Dark elf culture is simply very different from our own, and labeling them evil for that, makes you no better than you perceive them to be.”

“And what part of their culture have you seen that proves they are not evil.”

Ander pinched the bridge of his nose. This argument was going nowhere. He needed a change of approach if he was going to convince them. “My queen, surely you can see the futility in this argument. Perhaps if you were to meet the child, you all would see that she is not dangerous.”

Queen Aelsa thoughtfully considered Ander’s proposal. “Very well. I assume you brought her with you. Bring her in.”

Ander opened the main door to the council chambers where three girls were waiting on the other side. Two light elf teens and a dark elf ten year old who was hiding behind the eldest girl. Ander motioned for the youngest to come in, and she slowly approached him.

The only part of girl’s appearance that was the same as light elves was her pointed ears. Her skin was midnight blue a trait not seen in any other race, her hair was short wavy and black, and her eyes were monochromatic white. She stuck close to Ander, clearly nervous about being surrounded by other light elves in the same a light elf child would be nervous about being surrounded by dark elves.

“This is Larenna Everblight of the Scarlet Moon clan.” Ander introduced the girl.

“Everblight? A name like that and you still say she is not evil?”

“Silence, Morrowood.” Aelsa ordered. She got up from her throne and slowly approached Larenna then kneeled down to her eye level. “Hello Larenna. I’m Aelsa Featherwine. It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Larenna looked the queen up and down. “Your hair is pretty.”

“Thank you. I like your hair as well.”

Larenna smiled.

“Tell me Larenna. Do you like living with Ander, or would you rather go home to Svartalfheim?”

“I’m not supposed to go back. If I do bad stuff will happen.”

Aelsa looked up at Ander. “What does she mean by that?”

“I don’t know the full details, but from what her parents told me, Malekith chose one child from each of the major clans to be a potential heir. Larenna is one of those children, and who knows how Malekith will punish her for leaving the realm.”

“Leave it to Malekith to extend his cruelty even to children.” Aelsa stood up. “I see no harm in you raising Larenna, but there will be few others in the realm who see it that way, and if word were to get out to our allies about this the consequences could be dire.”

“I am aware and I will take full responsibility for whatever happens.”

“I’m sure you will, but to minimize damage you must go to Odin and explain this. Find a way to spin it in his favor.”

Ander sighed. He was afraid this was going to happen. He hated that he was only allowed to take Larenna in if it was convenient for everyone else. It almost made him consider just getting on with his and not going to Odin about this, but there was no one in the all the nine realms foolish enough to incur Odin’s wrath.

“Why do you need everyone’s permission to take care of me?” Larenna asked when they got home.

“Because they would prefer it if you went back to Svartalfheim instead.”

“Everyone’s wrong then.”

“Yeah…”

A week later they went to Asgard, so Ander could make his case to Odin.

“Nina, you’ll be in charge while I speak to Odin.” Ander told the oldest of his daughters then entered the great hall.

Nina took her sister, Nyra, and Larenna to the garden. Larenna was being uncharacteristically quiet, so Nyra tried to start up conversation, when Larenna didn’t reply, Nyra threw a rock at her causing her to disapate. “Larenna ran off again.” Nyra commented.

Nina sighed. “Let’s go find her.”

Larenna had left the garden to explore more of the palace. She was much more interested in exploring the inner palace than the gardens and courtyards. While looking around she heard two people a little older than her arguing about something. She hid in the shadows and slowly approached to see what was going on.

“Yhw dluow uoy od siht? I t’nac klat ot enoyna won!”

“Thor I can’t understand you. You’re speaking gibberish.”

“Uoy era eht tsrow.”

It took Larenna a little while to realize that Thor’s speech had been jinxed in some way. She wanted to make friends, and she knew how to undo the jinx, so she decided to show herself now.

“Krad fle!”

“What? That’s ridiculous. There is no way a dark elf could get to Asgard.” The other dismissed as he turned around then jumped back when he saw Larenna. “I was wrong.”

“Hi.” Larenna greeted them. “I’m Larenna.”

“...I’m Loki, and this is my brother Thor. Where did you come from?”

“Over there.” Larenna pointed in the direction she came from. “I can fix your speech.”

“Yats kcab.” Thor drew his sword to keep Larenna back.

In response Larenna stared intently at a spot behind Thor before disappearing. She reappeared behind Thor, then cast the spell to fix his speech.

Thor quickly spun around with his sword. “I’ll have none of your trickery, elf...Oh hey, you did fix me!” He sheathed his sword.

“Why’d you ruin it?” Loki whined.

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize.” Larenna redid the jinx. “You should have mentioned you messed up his speech. I thought some evil sorcerer did it or something.”

Thor stormed off.

“Why would an evil sorcerer jinx my brother?”

“Why would you jinx your brother?”

“I was bored and thought it would be fun.”

“And that’s why an evil sorcerer would do it.”

“Sure, that definitely makes sense.” Loki shook his head, he had no idea what to actually make of this girl, and that intrigued him. “Could you show me that teleportation trick you did?”

Larenna grinned.

By the time Nina and Nyra found Larenna, Loki was showing her how to create more convincing illusions.

“Should we stop this?” Nyra asked.

“I don’t know.” Nina replied.

Meanwhile in the throne room, Ander had explained the situation to Odin.

“As interesting of a story that is, we can’t just take in the children of our enemies.”

Ander raised an eyebrow at this. “Oh really? Because I remember twelve years ago, when we went on a raid to Jotunheim, and you stole a certain war prize. It’d be a shame if Loki were to learn about that.”

“Are you blackmailing me?” Odin asked incredulously.

“Blackmail is such a dirty word, but yes that it most definitely what I am doing, but I would also never be stupid enough to come in here with just a threat. You could easily kill me on the spot after all. No, I think you should also consider this: forging a peace of any kind with Svartalfheim is already extremely difficult, if you play your cards right, Larenna could be the key to it.”

Odin carefully considered Ander’s words. “Very well. You may raise Larenna, on one condition: You must move your family here to Asgard.”

The request seemed perfectly reasonable on the surface, but Ander knew the reason for the request was so Odin could better keep an eye on him.

With the meeting now over, Ander went to find his daughters to inform them of what was going on. When he found Nina and Nyra, there were multiple duplicates of Larenna and Loki running around mocking Nina. Nyra was in the corner laughing, while Nina did her best to dispel the illusions.

“What’s happening?” Ander asked Nyra.

Nira immediately stopped laughing. “While we were in the garden, Larenna ran off, and when we found her, Loki was helping her with her illusions, then Nina tried to tell them not to cause trouble, so they cast this, and Nina can’t get rid of it. She doesn’t even know if they’re still here.”

“I see.” Ander wrote a few runes on the floor. “Activate this.”

Nyra nodded then did as she was told. All of the duplicates disappeared revealing that Larenna and Loki had run off. Nina breathed a sigh of relief once they were gone and no longer aggravating her. “Apparently our little mischief maker found another one.”

“Don’t worry about it. Once we find her, we’ll sort this out, and I’ll talk to her about causing trouble like this. Do you remember the locater spell you recently learned?”

“Yes.” Nina cast it and found Larenna in a courtyard by a fountain. Ander took both of them when he went out there.

“Larenna, were you giving Nina a hard time?” Ander asked.

“No.” Larenna answered.

“Tell the truth.”

“Only a little.”

“You shouldn’t do that. Even if it is only a little.”

“Okay.”

“Now say goodbye to Loki. We need to go now.”

“Can I visit Loki again?”

“Of course you can.”

Ander had moved them to Asgard within a month. He managed to move them to a place in the countryside far outside the capital city. It didn’t take long, after they’d settled in, for Larenna to start visiting Loki everyday after her private lessons. The two of them managed to cause much more trouble than either of them could alone.

Within a year Ander found someone more qualified to teach Larenna magic than he was, which helped keep Larenna out of trouble for the most part. She quickly picked up on most of what was taught to her. She would often seek out other sources of magical knowledge with Loki often sneaking her into Asgard’s royal library to help her out.

Whenever either of them were struggling with something magically they would help the other out, sometimes by cheating for each other in their magic tests. Naturally it wasn’t long before one of them wanted to try dabbling in more forbidden magics.

Five years after leaving Svartalfheim, Larenna wanted to continue learning magic from her home, but it was one of many forms of magic that weren’t allowed in Asgard. She knew if she expressed what she wanted out loud, she would only be met with suspicion, so she turned to Loki for help.

“Sneaking you into the royal library is one thing, but what you’re asking now... This forbidden for a reason.”

“So, you’re not going to help me?”

“No, I’m just saying it’s going to be difficult. Of course I’ll help you. Plus forbidden magic is extremely enticing.”

“You’re enticing.”

“Larenna, no.”

“How about yes, though.”

“Stop it.”

“Okay, fine. So how are we going to find a magic book from Svartalfheim?”

“Well, there’s a vault in the library no one’s allowed to go in. There’s probably a bunch of forbidden stuff in there. Hard to say if there will actually be anything from Svartalfheim though.”

“Even if there isn’t, there should still be some interesting stuff.”

Their plan to get into the vault involved sneaking into the library at night with Larenna being the lookout while Loki actually figured out how to open it up. The problem was he did not recognize the runes that were used to keep the door shut and guarded against magic. “Larenna.”

Larenna hurried over. “What is it?”

“This isn’t happening tonight.” He showed her the runes.

“Oh. Yeah, this could take a while.” Larenna copied the runes down in a piece of paper. “We’ll come back when we figure this out.”

They spent the next few days referencing any runic language they could find, in an effort to translate the ones from the vault. It wasn’t until a week in that Loki found an ancient text that used the runes. When they finally translated the runes, a few weeks later, they found there was no direct way to counter them. The phrasing “Only the Allfather of Asgard may pass this threshold.” didn’t leave much room for loopholes, and the magic itself was far too powerful to cancel out in any way. If they wanted to get through that door they would have to get creative.

“What if we could rearrange the runes?” Larenna suggested.

“That’s...A brilliant idea actually. How did I not think of it?”

“If we can actually manage this, I’ll let you take credit.”

“That would just cause me to get in more trouble.”

“Fine, no one takes credit, and everybody loses.”

“Fine.”

Rearranging runes was an excellent idea on paper, but executing that idea was proving to be difficult. There were a few spells that could be used to rearrange words and letters in something that was already written, and they went through all of them to test which one worked best to change runes. All of them could change runes, but none of them had a lasting effect. They took the spell with the longest lasting effect and continued to make small adjustments to it, until they finally got it to last as long as they wanted.

When they went back to the vault, once again Larenna was the lookout while Loki opened the vault. This time they actually managed to get in, but they were disappointed by what they found. Instead of the forbidden magic they were hoping to find, they instead found a bunch of legal and historic documents. It was suspicious that Odin kept this locked up, but it wasn’t interesting enough for them to stick around.

This didn’t stop their search though.

They continued to look anywhere and everywhere they could for any kind of magic they couldn’t learn by remaining in Asgard. Over the years the search took them to other realms, and it was on a trip to Jotunheim that Loki learned of his true heritage.

Loki cut himself off from his family soon after that, and as the trouble he caused for his family he began slipping more towards what could be considered villainy. Larenna had to start sneaking around to see him, so they saw each other less and less, until Larenna decided to sneak off one last time and not return home.

She left a note for her family explaining why she left, but that was all she did to say goodbye out of fear that they would try to talk her out of her decision.

“You left your family… for me?”

“It’s more like… I don’t belong anywhere and neither do you, so we’re the only ones who actually understand each other.”

“Larenna…” Loki struggled to think of what to say, but words could not truly express how glad he was to no longer be alone, so instead he just pulled Larenna into an embrace. Loki was never one for physical affection, so Larenna understood the significance of it and returned the hug.


	2. Returning Home

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> After finding something from Svartalfheim, Larenna decides it's time to return home.

Over the next few decades Loki hatched many schemes against Asgard, all of which Larenna helped him with in some way usually from the shadows, and most of them were foiled by Thor. Odin grew tired of his youngest child’s insolence, and he grew even more tired of Larenna helping him, which was why he called in Ander.

“When you brought Larenna here, you said she could help bring peace between Asgard and Svartalfheim. Her most recent actions prove that wrong. When she and Loki are captured, she will be put to death, unless you think there’s some way to salvage the situation.”

“What are you asking?”

“Simple, find Larenna, convince her to leave Loki, and do whatever you can to get her on Svartalfheim throne.”

“So what you're saying is, either Larenna becomes your puppet queen, or she dies. That sounds like blackmail.”

“Blackmail is such a dirty word.”

Ander always knew that would come back to haunt him. He just hoped it wouldn’t be in a way that threatened his daughter’s life. “I’ll begin my search for her today. That’s all I can promise right now.”

“That’s all I need to hear.”

Outside Asgard’s city, in a large cave system was a blackmarket selling goods from realms Asgard was enemies with, as well as illegal magical items. Loki and Larenna were in disguise as they peroused the market. Larenna was mostly looking for anything from Svartalfheim. Even knowing the potential danger of going back, she still missed her home.

“Ooh, is that Shadow Tansy?” Larenna asked while pointing at a black flower.

“Why yes,” The merchant answered. “It’s from Svartalfheim. From what I’ve heard, it’s an aphrodisiac for dark elves.” He added not realizing he was talking to a dark elf.

“That’s not right.” Larenna corrected him. “Shadow Tansy is a spell ingredient often used in tantric magic, so the mistake is understandable.”

“Tantric magic?” Loki’s interest was piqued.

“I’ll show you later.” Larenna bought the root as well as a few other ingredients. Then she spotted a black sword. “How did you get that?”

“Oh this? It involved a bit of grave robbing. Did you know dark elves put their greatest warriors on display after their death. It’s very morbid.”

Larenna ignored his comment about dark elves being morbid. “How much for it?”

“Considering how much trouble I went through to get it, 5,000 silver ingots.”

Larenna didn’t have that much, so she turned to Loki. “Perhaps we can barter.” He said. “How does 2,000 sound?”

“I’m not budging on the price. If you don’t want to pay it, someone else will. I know many people who would want it in their collection.”

Larenna dropped her glamour and summoned shadows around her. “Let’s try this again.” She said calmly. “Give me the sword or I’ll curse your entire family with pain beyond your imagination.”

The merchant recoiled in fear. “Just take the sword and leave my family alone!”

Larenna dismissed the shadows and acted like nothing happened. “Thank you. It’s a pleasure doing business with you.” She said cheerfully, then took the sword and left.

“Why was it so important for you to get that sword?” Loki asked when they got home.

“My father had one just like it. Only Svartalfheim’s most elite warriors have them and when they die, they are interred with their swords.”

“Okay, what does that have to do with anything. I thought dark elves didn’t actually care about burial.”

“It’s more complicated than that. The point is a memorial was desecrated for him to obtain this sword, and if I didn’t buy it from that merchant, then someone with no respect for our culture would have and simply used the sword as a decoration.”

“What are you going to do with it?”

“I’ve been wanting to go back home for awhile. Now, I finally have a reason to.”

“Isn’t it dangerous for you to return?”

“Not if I’m disguised.”

“I’m not going to let you go alone.”

Larenna smiled. “I know you won’t, but you can’t just shapeshift into a dark elf and expect to blend it. You don’t know the culture, but you already thought of all that and come with a plan, haven’t you?”

“I’ll explain it later, but first I was hoping we could put your other purchase to use.” Loki motioned to the Shadow Tansy.

…

Before leaving to hunt down Larenna, Ander made a stop home to explain what was going on to Nina and Nyra. “So, that’s what’s going on. Do either of you have any questions?”

“Let us go with you.” Nina said.

“No. It’s best if I do this alone. You can still help though by casting a locator spell, so I’ll know where to start looking.”

“I’ll get started on that.” Nina said then left the room.

“Are you sure you’ll be able to find Larenna before anyone else?” Nyra asked.

“Yes, easily.”

“How do you know Larenna will listen, or that Odin will even keep his word?”

“I don’t, but I’ll cross those bridges when I get them.”

“How can you be so relaxed about all of this?”

“I’m not, Nyra. I’m just as scared as you are, but I can’t let my fear of what might happen get in the way of protecting my children.”

“Please don’t do anything stupid.”

“I’ll do my best.”

Nina returned to the room. “I cast the spell, but I think Larenna’s blocking me.”

“Try locating Loki. He’s never had reason to block out light elf magic.”

“I don’t have anything that belongs to him.”

“Go see if Thor can help with that, but don’t tell him what you need it for.”

“I’ll do what I can.” Nina told him then left. She knew the best way to get what she needed without Thor learning why she needed it, would be to just avoid Thor altogether. It wouldn’t be weird for her to be seen in the palace, so getting in was easy, and when no one was looking she went into Loki’s former room. Frigga made sure no one had gone in there since Loki left, so everything inside was exactly how Loki left it.

Nina couldn’t find any personal belongings, but she did find a hair brush. She took some hair from the brush, then carefully left the room. On her way out of the palace, she ran into Thor.

“Nina, it’s a surprise to see you here. The Warriors Three and I were about to go head out to Midgard. Would you like to come with? I’m sure the people we’re going to help could use a healer, and you’re the best healer I know.”

“Thor, how many times must I tell you, mere flattery will not be enough to win me over. I still have no interest on going on raids with you.”

“What will it take to change your mind?”

“Even if you could change my mind this time, I have somewhere I need to be right now.”

“Very well, but I will not give up trying.”

Nina continued on. As soon she got home, she prepared the spell to find Loki. Before casting the spell, she hesitated a moment. “What if Larenna can continue to evade capture on her own? Finding her will just force her into a situation she doesn’t want. Shouldn’t we just leave her alone?”

“Leaving her alone means there’s a chance she’ll be found and executed. Finding her eliminates that chance entirely.” Ander answered.

Nina nodded in understanding then cast the spell. The moment she had the location, Ander left.

…

After basking in the post coital glow for a minute, Loki noticed something. “There was nothing magical about that.”

“I wouldn’t say nothing magical.”

“Yes, the sex was amazing, but you know what I mean.”

“Sorry about that, I got distracted.”

“Well I’m not sorry for distracting you.”

Larenna got out of bed and started getting dressed. “We should get ready to leave. You going to explain your plan now?”

Loki got out of bed and shapeshifted into a petite blonde woman. “I was thinking I pretend to be some poor helpless Asgardian maiden you captured.”

“Sounds good, but you make a terrible blonde.”

Loki smirked as she changed her hair to ginger. “Better?”

“Blonde was better.” Larenna said as she finished getting dressed. She threw a set of ragged clothes at Loki, then started packing for their journey.

Loki looked over at everything Larenna had gathered, extra sets of clothes, some food, her spell book, and a small vial with black smoke in it. “Larenna, is that the curse you made?” Loki asked.

“Yes.”

“What do you need that for?”

“Just in case.” Larenna put the curse in her bag before Loki could ask any more questions. She put a glamour on the sword to make it look like any other sword, then changed her skin to cobalt and lightened her hair to violet as she lengthened it to her shoulders and gave herself yellow irises. “Alright, let’s go.”

Loki was the one who knew where all the portals were, so she was the one who led the way. Growing up, Loki had heard many stories of Svartalfheim and the dark elves. How it was a world of never ending darkness, and all the dark elves was conflict with each other and other realms, so it was a world perpetually soaked in blood.

That was what Loki was expecting when she stepped through the portal, but what she saw was much different. It was a dense dark yet beautiful forest with a few beams of different colored light shining through the canopy. When they left the forest and Loki looked up, she say the source of the light, three large moons, each a different color, blue, purple, and silver. Their light shined down on the mountains, valleys, rivers and swamps below them, creating a sight Loki had never seen before. “Wow.”

Larenna did her best to hold back tears. She was finally home.


	3. Seeking Danger

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Sometimes it's impossible to avoid trouble, but that doesn't mean you should look for it.

By the time Ander arrived where Nina’s locator spell pointed him to, Loki and Larenna were already gone. He was still able to track where they went up until he made it to the portal. He didn’t know where the portal lead, but he now knew where they’d been living. Ander considered just waiting for them there, but instead figured it would be best to see which realm they went to first. The moment he saw it was Svartalfheim, his decision was made. No matter what her reason for being here, Larenna was in danger.

Ander was only somewhat familiar with the terrain of Svartalfheim, so tracking anyone was a difficult task, but Ander knew of a few places Larenna might visit, as well as places she would avoid. That gave him somewhere to start at least.

When Ander left the forest he saw a mountain range in the distance that looked familiar. He’d seen it a few times before when he visited Gorran, Larenna’s father, so he had a good idea of where he was and where to go from here.

He started making his way to the mountain range, Larenna used to live in a valley there, so Ander knew that was the most likely place for her to go. He was careful as he moved. He didn’t want to be seen since dark elves would not react well to seeing a light elf in their realm. It wasn’t until he actually arrived at the village that he ran into trouble. There were several soldiers patrolling the village.

Ander hid in a tree while trying to figure out how to get past the patrol as well as trying to figure out what they were doing here in the first place.The only reason he could think of was that Malekith was expecting Larenna. If that was the case then whatever reason for Larenna being here, Malekith probably set it up. This situation was just getting worse and worse.

He carefully watched for the right moment to go sneak past the soldiers. He was willing to wait hours if he had to. While watching, he saw a child approach one of the soldiers. He couldn’t hear what the child was saying, but he saw the soldier’s reaction of kicking the child away. In the blink of an eye the soldier’s leg was removed and Ander stood over him with his sword as he fell.

The other dark elf soldiers ran towards Ander with their weapons drawn. Ander stood perfectly still to allow his magic to recharge after using half of it for that quick burst of speed. He moved the moment one of the soldiers was within striking distance. Once again he used his magic to increase speed but not as drastically, instead it was just enough to give himself an advantage over the four soldiers left. It was just enough of an advantage to even the odds.

Ander countered every strike thrown at him while looking for any opening. The moment an opening was seen, Ander took it, stabbing one of the soldiers’ lung, taking him out of the fight. After that, the fight turned in Ander’s favor, and he was able to quickly overcome the last three.

Expending most of his magic like that exhausted him and left him vulnerable to anything the villagers might want to do to him. He cleaned his sword and sheathed it, then put his hands up to indicate to the villagers that he meant them no harm.

“What have you done?” One of the villagers yelled. “We did not like them occupying our village, but with them dead, we will have to face Malekith’s wrath.”

“None of them are dead, and if you send out your healers now, they will be fine.”

“What brings you here, light elf?”

“I followed Larenna Everblight to this realm, I am trying to find her before Malekith does.”

“How do you expect to do that? Malekith sent these soldiers to wait for her, and he did the same in many other places. You can’t just go from place to place until you find her.”

“No, but I doubt those soldiers were Malekith’s only way to get Larenna back. Do you know if he set any traps?”

“When the soldiers came, a mage entered the old Everblight home for a few minutes then left.”

“Then I’ll activate the trap.”

“You are very foolish, even for a light elf.”

“I get that a lot.”

Ander walked across the village to the house then waited for his magic to fully replenish before going in. The only thing he knew about the trap was that it would probably keep him alive, and that alone was good enough for him. When he entered, nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Other than the dust and cobwebs everything was exactly how it was decades before.

The only thing out of place was a note on the ground. As soon as Ander picked it up, the words glowed and his surroundings disappeared only to be replaced by a throne room. Royal guards immediately surrounded him.

“You’re not Larenna!” A female voice exclaimed.

Ander turned around and saw not Malekith on the throne, but instead a young woman draped in dark silks with fuschia trim that matched her eyes, and silver hair that was done up in an intricate style. “And you’re not Malekith, so I guess we’re both disappointed. Who are you?”

“I am Maldorra, soon to be last of Malekith’s thirteen heirs, and you?”

“No one. I’m no one.”

Maldorra wasn’t buying that. “Lock him in the dungeon. Malekith will decide what to do with him when he returns.”

Ander didn’t fight back when he was taken by the guard. He was just going to have to bide his time a bit longer.

…

“We’ve been on this road for hours, do you even know where you’re going?” Loki asked.

“Yes, we’re going straight to the capitol. We’ll probably make a stop along the way, but other than that, the plan is still just go to the capitol, put the sword back, leave.”

“Wow, that is a brilliant well thought out plan.”

“Stop.”

“That is truly the most fleshed out plan that’s ever existed.”

“I get it, okay, but I don’t need an intricate plan for this. Just a cloaking spell when we get to the wall.”

“And if someone detects you anyway?”

“Then I’ll improvise.”

“See, this is why I’m usually the one who comes up with the plans.”

Larenna huffed. She already knew Loki was coming up with multiple backup plans, because that’s what Loki always did even when Larenna actually had a solid plan. To say it was annoying was an understatement.

“What about the curse you brought?” Loki asked suspiciously. “What’s that for?”

“I told you, just in case.”

“Just in case what?”

“I can see a town up ahead.” Larenna changed the subject. “There’s probably an inn we can stay at there.”

“Why are you changing the subject?”

“You should get into character.” Larenna put chains on Loki, so they could sell the cover story. “Remember you worked in the palace, and what you know about the royal family is why you’re worth keeping alive.”

“I remember the story. Not sure how you plan on getting us out with that story, since it makes leaving the realm with me will look extremely suspicious.”

“That’s why I setup a teleportation waypoint near the portal back to Asgard, so we don’t have to worry about that.”

“At least this was somewhat thought out.”

“You didn’t have to come with me, Loki.” Larenna snapped.

“Sorry. I’m just worried. If even one thing goes wrong during this trip, you could die.”

“I’m not going to die. Malekith wants me alive.”

“How do you know?”

“It’s complicated, and messed up, and I don’t want to talk about it.”

“Okay, but it’s still dangerous.”

“I know, but I don’t need you telling me what I’m doing wrong. It doesn’t help.”

As they walked into town, many people, especially the children, stared at Loki. They’d never seen an asgardian before. Larenna ignored their stares as she made her way straight to the inn.

“Haven’t seen you around these parts.” The innkeeper said, making small talk as Larenna payed for a room.

“I’ve been away for awhile.”

“I see. What about the asgardian wench?”

“Where do you think I’ve been this whole time?”

The innkeeper gave her the key without saying anything further. As soon as they made it up to the room, Larenna locked the door and shut the curtains, and Loki shifted to her default female form.

“What are doing!?” Larenna whispered.

Loki gave her a blank stare as she cast a soundproofing spell over the room. “There now you don’t have to worry about anyone listening in. To answer your question, I changed into a form I’m more comfortable with since no one else is around.”

“Someone could come in here at any time though, even with the door locked. You can’t be too careful about these things.”

“You should relax.” Loki gently caressed her. “No one has reason to come in here.”

Larenna leaned into the touch as she changed back to her true form. “I know. It’s just if I do get caught…”

“It’s okay if you don’t want to talk about it.” Loki entwined her fingers with Larenna’s and led her over to the bed. “Why don’t you tell me about some of your good memories of this place?”

Larenna cuddled up close to Loki and rested her head on Loki’s shoulder. They sat in silence until Larenna spoke up. “It’s been so long,” she said quietly then magically projected an image over the room of the village she grew up in. “I don’t even know if any of the details are right anymore.”

“Well it’s certainly quaint.”

“I wasn’t allowed to spend much time here, but it was home.” The image shifted to the inside of her home. The only parts of the image that were clear were her parents. They were as Larenna remembered them best, her father was in his armor, and her mother just returned from a hunt. The image was still but lively. “I miss them.”

“Did you have any friends?”

The image changed to that of a palace interior. “No. The closest thing I had was the other potential heirs, but I was constantly competing with them.” An image of a young dark elf girl with silver hair appeared. “Maldorra was the worst. Pretty sure she would have killed me if stayed.

“She wasn’t the worst thing from back then.” The image began to get darker and change, but Loki hijacked the illusion and changed it to a beach they once visited on Midgard. Larenna looked up at Loki inquisitively.

“This seems far more pleasant than whatever image you were about to conjure up.”

“You’re right.”

They sat in silence as they enjoyed the scenic view and each other’s company. It was a rare moment of peace for the two of them, even if the beach and the sunset now accomponing it wasn’t real. It wasn’t long before the two of them fell asleep in the each other’s arms.

Larenna awoke to the sound of a familiar horn. Loki was still asleep, so she went over to the window and peaked through the curtains. She saw a pack of large faery hounds and some hunters, but there was no sign of their leader.

Loki was starting to wake up at this point.

“Larenna? What are you doing up?” She asked.

“I heard the sound for the wild hunt. Malekith is here.”

“I didn’t hear anything.”

“It can only be heard by elves.” Larenna made a beeline for her bag, but before she could find what she was looking for, the door to their room was destroyed.

The sight of her worst nightmare stepping through the doorway caused Larenna to freeze up. Loki quickly got up to defend her, but she was hit with a wave of red energy that pinned her to the wall.

Malekith glanced over at Loki. “You’re lucky I have a use for a child of Odin.” He then turned to Larenna. “You on the other hand,” The same wave of red energy hit her. “Are going to have to prove you’re still useful to me.”


	4. Resentment

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Larenna escapes only to run into more obstacles

Malekith’s epithet “The Accursed” was well known throughout the nine realms. What wasn’t as well know was how he gained that title in the first place. Many assumed it was either the light elves or the aesir that gave him the title, they were his biggest enemies after all, but it was actually his own people who first called him The Accursed. What other name was there for someone who became king by killing his predecessor then using fear to force his subjects into submission.

When he decided he needed an heir, instead of doing it the traditional way, he decided to force each of the major clans to give him one. Most of the clans willingly gave him an heir, either out of fear or opportunism, but there were a few that resisted. The first that resisted insisted on selling the child instead of just giving her to him. The only thing that kept him from just burning down the town the girl was from to take her was the fact that his mother sold him off at a young age and he remembered just how much that hate fueled him, so not only did he pay her family’s price, he made sure she would constantly be reminded of what her family did.

The clan that gave him the most trouble was the Scarlet Moon clan. Not only did they refuse to give up a child willingly, but when he sent soldiers to their villages they sent back the heads of the soldiers, so Malekith had to go in person.

The clan’s elders were all meeting soon, so that’s when Malekith made his move. He summoned the wild hunt and the faery hounds surround the village as he entered and killed a few of the elders to announce his presence. “I am tired of your clan defying me, so unless you want your entire clan to be wiped out, you’ll bring out all of the children in this village.”

They didn’t have much of a choice.

Malekith noticed the children that were brought out were all above the age of five. “Are you sure these are all of the children here?” Malekith asked.

After a long silence the sound of a baby crying could be heard from one of the houses.

“Never mind I have my answer.” Malekith sent one of the hounds in after the baby, then the crying stopped. “I doubt that was the only child you’re hiding from me, so unless you want the others to meet the same fate-” Malekith was cut off by the sound of that same child laughing. Curious about what happened, he went into the house the child was in. There he saw the child’s mother using a spell to keep the hound calm so it wouldn’t attack her daughter. The girl meanwhile had crawled over to the hound and was trying to play with it. She didn’t show any fear. Malekith decided she was the one he wanted as an heir.

Some of his thirteen heirs still had familiar connections which he allowed them to keep for now. They would spend most of their time at the palace learning court etiquette, economics, the art of war, magic, and anything else Malekith thought was important.

There were a few times one of the child’s parents would change their mind. When this happened Malekith would have the child kill their parents and if they failed the whole family would be killed.  
Maldorra, the child that was sold to him, volunteered to kill her family before they even made any transgressions against him. Her anger, when properly directed, would have made her the most promising heir except many of the other’s had proven to be her better in other areas. To test her, Malekith once brought up to someone else how well another child was doing, and made sure Maldorra was within earshot, he even made sure to draw a direct comparison to the child in question and Maldorra.

Within a week the child in question was dead.

Larenna at first proved to be a disappointment, and not just because she was the youngest. The only thing she had going for her in those early years was her lack of fear. She was simply either average or below average for someone her age in most of the subjects that were taught. Then it came time to start teaching them magic.

While most of the children (that were left) were content to just learn the spells by rote, Larenna would always ask questions like why does that spell do this, how does it work, and other questions along those lines. She was always eager to learn more. However her true potential was shown when she started experimenting with the spells she already knew, and she found a way to improve on one of them.  
After that Malekith’s focus shifted from Maldorra to Larenna to both their detriment. All Maldorra ever wanted was to prove herself, and all Larenna ever wanted was to just pursue magical knowledge. Maldorra could no longer get Malekith’s attention for anything even as she proved that she had more raw power than Larenna did. Larenna could no longer focus on learning what she wanted, instead Malekith refocused her studies on only magics that were too dangerous for most people to learn.

Maldorra’s resentment grew until one night she decided to get rid of Larenna, same as she did some of the others. It was late at night when she went into Larenna’s room with a dagger in hand. Larenna awoke just in time to teleport out of the way.

“Really, Mal?” Larenna asked in disbelief.

Maldorra didn’t answer, instead firing a powerful magical blast at Larenna.

Larenna once again teleported out of the way.

“Hold still.”

“No. You’re trying to kill me.” Larenna ran out of the room and down the hall. She’d never had to defend herself in a life or death situation before, but she had a plan. A plan that required her to put a lot of distance between herself and Maldorra. Once she was sure there was enough distance, she summoned up a small amount of magical energy in her fingertips and used that to carve a sigil into the floor. She then used an illusion to hide it.

Maldorra found Larenna and ran toward her. When she stepped on the sigil, she was frozen in place as she was overcome with intense pain for a few seconds until she passed out.  
Larenna’s parents had plans to take her out of Svartalfheim for awhile, but this incident forced them to move those plans up, and Larenna was gone the next day. All of Malekith’s attempts to track her down failed. Her mother, Althea, must have put some kind of protection on her.

Malekith continued looking for Larenna over the years. Eventually he heard rumors that she was in Asgard, so he concocted a plan to lure her back home.

The plan succeeded and he now had a light elf and a member of asgardian royalty in his dungeon and Larenna locked up in her old her room with runes to keep from being able to leave on her own.  
Malekith was currently looking through her bag to see if there was anything of interest inside. The first thing he did was remove the glamour from the sword and have someone go put it back, he then looked through Larenna’s spell book. Inside were a few spells Larenna had gathered from other places and adjustments she’s made to them as well as a few spells she’d created herself.

What he found most interesting was a curse she’d created, especially since she brought the curse with her. It looked like the curse was meant to put whoever it was cast on to sleep for a hundred years while experience a nightmare created from all of their worst memories. Malekith was impressed, even if Larenna probably intended to use it on him.

On the next page he found a spell for rearranging runes. As soon as he saw that, he had several guards go check Larenna’s room. One of them reported back that Larenna was gone and he had every palace guard looking for her. That wasn’t good enough for Malekith, but he saw this as an opportunity.

He stormed into Maldorra’s room. “Larenna’s escaped. You want to prove you’re better than her, now’s your chance, find her and bring her back.”

“Why can’t I just kill her?”

“Because she’s still your better in many ways.”

“Fine.” Maldorra snapped. She cast a protective dome around the city to keep Larenna from leaving then began to look around. While looking, she cast several different locator spells in an attempt to make it go by faster, but one after the other, they failed. Maldorra had one more spell she could try, but she needed to use someone that Larenna was close to for it to work, so she made her way to the dungeon.

Once down there, she stormed straight to Loki’s cell. “You! Asgard woman, I have use for you.”

“I have a name.” Loki replied. “It’s Loki, and you must be Maldorra. Larenna’s told me a lot about you.”

“Be silent.” Maldorra reached between the bars and grabbed Loki’s wrist.

Loki took a step back while pulling her wrist away. “If you really want to use me, you’re going to have to be gentle. Why don’t you open that door and come in here so we can talk about this properly?”

“If I open the cell door you’ll just escape.”

“Actually I find this cell quite comfortable. I think I’ll stay here awhile.”

“Do you take me for a fool?”

“I’ve just met you. I can’t judge you in any way yet.”

Maldorra narrowed her eyes suspiciously then wrote a sigil on the ground. “This sigil prevents Asgardians from passing over it.” She explained then opened the door and walked in.

“What a clever trick. Now what exactly is it you want to use me for?”

“Larenna’s escaped. I need to find her, and to do that I need to use your connection to her to track her.”

“And what connection do you think we have?”

“Doesn’t matter. All that matters is that there’s a connection there.”

“Incorrect. If you want your spell to have the best results, you need to be able to understand the connection you are using.”

“Fine. What’s your connection to her?”

“How about this: I’ll tell you mine if you me yours.”

“She’s the only thing standing between me and the throne that is rightfully mine.”

“Pretty sure Malekith’s the one who decides who inherits the throne. It isn’t rightfully yours unless he says it is.”

“That may be technically true, but Larenna has done nothing to deserve it, yet Malekith constantly favored her.”

“From what I’ve heard about Malekith, that may not necessarily be a good thing.”

“It doesn’t matter. I’ve told you about my connection. Now it’s your turn.”

“Very well. We’re close friends who occasionally have sex. Now cast your spell.”

This time when Maldorra grabbed her wrist she was much gentler. When she cast the spell, Loki subtly hijacked it, so she would also get Larenna’s location. Maldorra didn’t seem to notice and as soon as the spell was completed she teleported to the location.

“Loki?” A familiar voice from the cell next to Loki’s said.

“Ander?”

“What’s this about you having sex with my daughter?”

“I was lying to throw Maldorra off the trail.”

“No. You’re lying now.”

“Look, does it really matter. I think there are more important matters to deal with.” Loki walked out of her cell and went over to Ander’s.

“You’re right. We can talk about it later. Did you hijack that spell?”

“Yes. Larenna’s heading to the outer wall. Not sure why though. With that barrier up, she won’t be able to leave.” Loki cast a lock picking spell on the door to let Ander out.

“That wall is where they entomb dead warriors.”

“That’s an odd place to bury people.”

“It’s part of a mass necromancy ritual that can only be activated by the ruler of Svartalfheim. It’s a last line of defense.”

“That still doesn’t explain why Larenna’s going there.”

“Loki, she knows what she’s doing. If you want to go after her you can, but I’m going to go kill Malekith.” Ander left the dungeon with Loki close behind.

“I don’t know how you hope to accomplish that, and I don’t care. This is where we part ways, possibly forever. Goodbye.” Loki changed into a magpie and flew off toward the wall.

Ander went to retrieve his sword then began to look around for Malekith.

At the wall, Larenna was looking for someway she could activate the necromancy ritual. She had a few ideas, like tricking it into thinking she was the ruler of Svartalfheim, but the only way she do that would be to incapacitate Malekith and Maldorra to be safe which was much easier said than done. Her other idea hinged on her father being interred in the wall. She could use her link to him to raise him and his link to the ritual and the rest of the undead army to raise them as well. It would be difficult but it was her best chance right now.

She had to search along the whole wall to find her father. She wished she could just use a locator spell to find his body, but all of them just pointed to Hel, so she had to find the body the old fashioned way: look.

Eventually she found it, which was a relief. She wasn’t even sure the body would be here. She started casting the spell, but just as it was being completed a blast of magical energy hit the body, causing it to explode.

Larenna turned around looking for the source of the blast when she saw Maldorra. “So we’re doing this again.”

“I’ve learned a lot since our last encounter, Larenna. If you think you can beat me this time you’re wrong.”

“You took out my trump card, I’ll give you that, but it’s not a guarantee that you’ll win, or did you think I haven’t learned anything since I left?”

“Obviously you haven’t stagnated, but picking up a few tricks here and there is nothing compared to the combat skills I’ve picked up.”

While this conversation was going, Larenna had teleported away while leaving an illusory projection behind in her place. “You going to keep bragging, or are you going to back it up?”

Maldorra fired a magic blast aimed directly at Larenna. When the smoke cleared and nothing was left, she knew she’d been tricked.

Larenna had escaped into the crowd and shapeshifted back to her disguise form to make it hard for Maldorra to find her. She set up a few booby traps for Maldorra as she made her way back to the palace. She had to free Loki before she could do anything else at this point.

As she ran toward the palace a magpie flew toward her then transformed into Loki, now in his male form. “Oh good, you’re here. Now all we have to do is knock out Maldorra, then the barrier will go down and we can teleport back to the portal.”

“Slight problem with that plan. Ander is here and he’s trying to kill Malekith.”

“What!?”


End file.
